Organized by a group of faculty and students from the College of Education at the University of Washington (UW), this seminar is an invitation to reflect on the way global dynamics affect the agenda setting in education worldwide. The main goal of this seminar is to make visible the intersections between globalization and education which influence the ways in which educators, …

Each year, U.S. universities churn out enough new PhD graduates–50,000 of them–to populate a small city. Worldwide, more PhDs are produced now than ever before. With anecdotes about out-of-work or underemployed PhDs receiving broad publicity, governments and university administrators in industrialized societies have started asking whether or not too many people are pursuing doctoral degrees. Yet that’s the wrong question …

A silent paradigm shift has occurred in doctoral education. Preparing the next generation of PhDs to function successfully in and contribute to today’s and tomorrow’s global environment requires an approach that goes beyond conceptualizing an apprenticeship model and institutes communities of practice, which should include recognition of peers as learning partners. Coordinated efforts are also needed across many levels inside …

This article assesses the current state of internationalisation and international experiences, focusing in particular on science and engineering fields. It discusses initial results from a workshop, sponsored by the US National Science Foundation and organised by the Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education at the University of Washington, to develop an interdisciplinary research agenda aimed at launching and …

In this article, we analyze findings of the largest, most comprehensive survey of the career paths of social science PhD graduates to date, Social Science PhDs Five+ Years Out (SS5). SS5 surveyed more than 3,000 graduates of U.S. PhD programmes in six social science fields six to ten years after earning their PhD. The survey collected data on family, career and graduate school …

This paper unpacks how social science doctorate-holders come to evaluate overall excellence in their PhD training programs based on their domain-specific assessments of aspects of their programs. Latent class analysis reveals that social scientists 6-10 years beyond their PhD evaluate the quality of their doctoral program with one of two approaches. Graduates of elite programs rely heavily on perceptions of …

Preparing the next generation of PhDs to function successfully and contribute to the global world currently and in the future requires broadening the conceptual approaches to doctoral education beyond the apprenticeship model to a community of practice. It also requires coordinated efforts of many levels within and beyond a university. This next generation of researchers must acquire traditional academic research …

Theories of the “knowledge economy” view knowledge, and particularly new knowledge, as a critical resource to enhance a nation’s economic growth. Governments around the world have invested in doctoral education expansion. Reforms in doctoral education are being shaped by the changing needs of society, of research modes, and of a changed labor markets for PhD holders. The reform elements strive …

Since the 1990s, globalization has become a central phenomenon for all of society, including graduate education and particularly doctoral education. Globalization takes place in a context where doctoral education and research capacity are unevenly distributed and where a few research universities, mainly in wealthy countries, have become powerful social institutions. But all graduate education systems are increasingly part of an international context in which policy-makers …